Mueller Hinton Agar Plate is supplied by HiMedia. It contains 25ml of sterile ready prepared media in 100 mm disposable plates. This light amber coloured medium has a pH in the range of 7.2 to 7.4. Mueller Hinton Agar is mainly used for the determination of susceptibility of microorganisms to antimicrobial agents. It is advisable to store this product between 15-25C. Composition (in gm/L) is as follows:

Beef (300.00)

Casein acid hydrolysate (17.50)

Starch (1.50)

Agar (17.00)

The Mueller Hinton medium was originally developed as a simple, transparent agar medium for the cultivation of pathogenic Neisseria species. But it is now used as a test medium for antimicrobial susceptibility testing. Mueller Hinton Agar with 5% sheep blood and Mueller Hinton Agar with Hemoglobin are highly suitable for antimicrobial susceptibility testing of Streptococcus pneumoniae and Haemophilus influenzae. Beef infusion and casein acid hydrolysate present in the medium, provide nitrogenous compounds, carbon, sulphur and other essential nutrients. Starch acts as a protective colloid against toxic substances present in the medium. Starch hydrolysis yields dextrose, which serves as a source of energy. These ingredients are selected for their low thymine and Thymidine content, as determined by MIC values for Enterococcus faecalis with sulfamethoxazoletrimethoprim (SXT). Calcium and magnesium ion concentrations are adjusted to provide the amounts recommended by CLSI to give the correct MIC values with aminoglycosides and Pseudomonas aeruginosa. Mueller Hinton Agar is not suitable for assay by disc diffusion method with slow growing organisms, anaerobes and capnophiles.